The Short Order: Chef Paul Kahan's Guide to Chicago

"It’s brand new. They show Japanese anime up on the wall in the dining room, and it’s all sort of mismatched lights and brick walls and trees inside, and it’s feels very Japanese to me—I was actually just in Tokyo so I can say that with a little bit of authority. I went in the other day and had a Pappy Van Winkle on the rocks, and it came with one giant spherical ice cube. The food is a slightly Americanized interpretation of yakitori, and it’s really well done."

"For me it’s a really true expression of what a gastropub is supposed to be. One of the partners, Robert McAdams, designed and built the rooms up above. They’re kind of Ace-Hotel-y, but a little nicer. The food is pretty spot-on and they have very good drinks, and good whiskey. Chicago doesn’t have a lot of boutique hotels presently, and this is like an ultra-boutique hotel—it’s more like a guesthouse."

"Go there for brunch. It’s the epitome of a neighborhood restaurant. The chef’s name is Jason Hamel, and he’s just a really smart, really righteous guy. He really contributes to the community and is a huge supporter of local and seasonal and sustainable and all the things that are important to me. On Monday nights, Lula does a three- or four-course farm dinner, and it’s always super well-prepared and laidback."

"Soul Night’s the first Wednesday of every month. The DJ plays his immense collection of rare soul 45s, and the place is as crowded as it can be and everyone is gyrating and dancing and it’s stuff you’ve never heard before that’s completely off the hook. Danny’s is a great bar as it is, but Soul Night’s something pretty special."

"Reckless is a stop-in-every-week record store. They get so much volume of used stuff, sweeping all genres. I’d been looking for years for this album called Subway Joe from a New York Latin soul guy from the late ’60s named Joe Bataan, and I finally found a copy there. They also carry everything that’s new, so if Radiohead comes out with an album, they get it in on vinyl, which is a plus for me because I like to buy records."

"My business partner Terry Alexander and I both love no-nonsense bars—rock bars, old-man bars, bars that play great music and might or might not have good beer. The Rainbo is in Wicker Park and during prohibition it was a speakeasy. It’s got a square bar, so anywhere you’re sitting you can see the whole room. A lot of the guys that work there are musicians, so they bartend and they play great records. Terry and I have a Top 10 Bars in America list and the Rainbo Club is on there."

"Chicago has a huge Mexican population, and 18th St. is where it all is. The goat tacos here are incredible, and there’s nothing fancy about it other than that the food is great. You can walk around and go to a carnitas place, you can go to a taqueria, carniceria, everything. It’s very alive; it’s a beautiful neighborhood."

"It’s a husband and wife—he makes the pizza and she makes the salad. It’s on a little side street, and I think it’s 12 seats. It’s named after a song by Joe Henry, an incredible musician. I heard the other night that Jay-Z and Beyoncé were in Chicago and they ate at Great Lake, but there was no room, so they had to wait. They weren’t like, ’Oh my God, Jay-Z, we gotta seat ya!’ They had to go to a restaurant next door like normal people. Pretty amazing I think. They use all local, seasonal, and organic ingredients, and it’s a super thin crust, with amazing big bubbles, that’s chewy. For me, it’s the best pizza I’ve ever had."

"The lore is that there’s an underground tunnel from the Green Mill that goes to the lake, where they used to bring in booze during prohibition. The Green Mill’s a jazz club, and it’s been in a million movies. You can go in there a couple hours before the sun comes up and it’s completely packed with humanity—black people, white people, brown people, green people, everything. Everyone’s happy and everyone’s drunk, and at that time there’s usually an organ guy playing. It’s the go-to when it’s really late and you just want to be in the thick of it."

"If you need new furniture or pottery or rugs, you go to him and you look through catalogues and pick stuff out. Some of the design places you go in and they’re snooty, and you just don’t feel like you can get anything accomplished, but these guys are down-to-earth and helpful. He does this thing every year where he gets 15 semi-truck trailers and they park out on Fulton Market and local designers show off their wares inside the trucks."

"A little storefront wine shop. He gets great stuff from France, Italy, Austria, and the big wineries. It’s no-nonsense, it’s user-friendly, and the wines are handpicked. You can call him and say, ’Craig, I need a case of rosé, 10 bucks a bottle, I’ll come by in an hour to pick it up.’"

"It’s women’s designer clothing, and it’s run by a couple that finds a lot of stuff in Belgium like Dries Van Noten. The people are amazingly helpful. I don’t really splurge on anything, but I do a lot of shopping for my wife there. I use a company credit card that my wife never sees, or I buy stuff in cash, so she doesn’t know how much money I’m actually spending, because she’d have a heart attack. It’s top-secret."

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